My New Dragon
We bought the iron dragon from Paolo in Casole, near Siena, Italy. Paolo is a marvelously gifted artist who works with wood, metal, you name it. Casole is a lively town filled with many art objects. One of Paolo’s giant sculptures graces the square before City Hall.
The dragon is actually a chimera, half dragon, half horse. Here we see it from the horse side. We saw it first in the City Hall during a ceremony bestowing honorary citizenship to David DeRosier and Esta Markin, who traveled with us, for their 20-year long association with the town — they have come every summer for a few weeks and know everybody by now.
The beast spent several weeks in a crate, first sitting in Milano, then traveling across the Atlantic, then sitting in a Customs office in Memphis for more than 2 weeks while everybody involved — sender, shipping company, receiver — was wondering what was going on. I even got worried at one point that my continued criticism of Trump on Twitter had resulted in a pointed retaliatory White House directive to the Customs officers to delay or even refuse clearance of any articles I import.
Fedex added confusion since it had just taken over TNT, the shipping company Paolo used in Italy. Fedex tracking numbers are longer than TNT tracking numbers, and 1-800 numbers are different for different departments. The one Fedex suggests to call is invariably the incorrect one. Fedex in all communications refers to the TNT tracking number but when I talk to someone on the phone they tell me the number is invalid. Even the impersonal robot voice says “Mmhh? The number is not quite right.” Fedex also made Green River Road into Queen River Road.
That the statue arrived at all is a miracle.
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